Tag Archives: Mindset

Aside

Making decisions can be tough. Particularly when you are creating Fresh Tracks and stepping into new and uncharted territory. Why is making a decision so difficult when doing new things? Because you don’t have a history to support or justify your decision, particularly if it doesn’t turn out the way you choose.

The truth is most of us are not taught how to make a true decision, and yet decision-making is such an important aspect of our life as humans. We are gifted with the ability to choose. It’s what sets us apart from everything else. And to top it off, according to Fresh Tracker Dr. Gary Klein on the Fresh Tracks podcast, what many of us were taught about how to make decisions is completely wrong! Most decision-making is done on a subconscious level and happens quickly. Not plotted out on a flow chart.

Making decisions on a conscious level and cultivating confidence and trust in yourself involves some self-reflection. How do you make decisions (quickly, intuitively, slowly, after months of research, you don’t unless you have to)? How often do you stick with the decisions you do make?

Here are a few factors that may be playing a role in your ability, or inability, to make a true decision.

TrustMaking a decision is also an exercise in how much you trust yourself. Decision-making is overloaded with beliefs and feelings that you may not be aware of at first glance. Not trusting yourself or your ability to make the right decision, but also trusting yourself that you will follow through and stick to your decision once you’ve made it are key motivators behind these beliefs. Next time you are in a position to make a decision, slow down and listen to your body. What’s it telling you? And how much of that do you agree with?

FearFear frequently reigns its ugly head when it’s time to make a decision. Particularly when cutting Fresh Tracks! We may be afraid to lose something in making one choice over another. Or we are unwilling to give up the status quo – even if we say we want change, our decision-making doesn’t support that. Where is fear coming up for you in your decision-making?

MindsetOne last factor that dramatically effects your decisions is your belief about your ability to complete the task. Your mindset affects your decision-making. So, when confronted with making a different choice or when cutting Fresh Tracks and approaching something new, stop and examine your mindset. What are your beliefs about the matter? Why does it matter to your decision? Do you believe yourself and what you are committing to?

Trusting yourself when making decisions, taking action from a place of power, and stepping boldly into your path and purpose are all reasons to continue moving forward on your path cutting Fresh Tracks.

I thank you for being with me on this journey and I look forward to both of us continuing to cut Fresh Tracks!

Lori is a realtor and has worked part-time in the field for a few years. Her main source of income is a passive income stream she set up several years ago, and she relies on this weekly check to cover all her expenses and pay her bills. Any other income, including her real estate income, she considered extra.

The real estate clients she worked with came to her without much effort. She enjoyed working with each of them and really considered it play rather than “work”. She also only gave a small part of herself to this endeavor, not taking much risk and not playing full-out at the same time.

Lori’s confidence in her passive income stream was beginning to waiver, and she considered getting a job to replace the consistent income she relied on each week.

Within a month Lori was offered a job. She was asked to ‘name her salary’, they wanted her badly. She meditated on it and wasn’t sure she actually wanted the job, so she offered a high number she didn’t think they would accept. Which they did.

Taking time to consider her options and working full-time, even with opportunity for growth and expansion, didn’t feel right. It wasn’t appealing to her. Trusting herself she told them no. She offered an alternative to work four hours a day, part-time as a contractor, thinking that would solve her problem. They accepted that offer and she still told them she wanted to think about it some more.

Lori shares that there was something not feeling right about working in this way. While she really wanted the steady and secure income, she was hesitating. She meditated deeply on it and asked her intuition what to do. She decided again, not to take the position and offered them two other qualified people to consider.

Lori realized she had a belief that to be financially secure she needed job or committed paycheck. She was putting her faith in controlling HOW the money came to her rather than focusing on the Universal Principle of the Law of Supply and knowing that the money would come to her.

Lori set an intention that she would build her real estate business so she could live exclusively on that income.

That very week Lori received two new real estate clients!

Lori asked and trusted her intuition not to accept the job, trusting in her next step. Lori didn’t know exactly how she would meet her goals of consistent income and replacing her passive income stream. She did listen to herself and take what seemed to be an illogical step at the time, yet trusted what she knew to be true for her.

Overview

Belief – Need a check from a company or outside source for steady income/financial security.Practices leading to change – Strengthened intuition through meditation practice. Examined belief in where money comes from. Her belief in supply.Universal Law in play – Law of SupplyIntention – Increase income from existing passive income stream (weekly check) and real estate career.

You must take care of yourself first. We’ve all heard that statement before and can intellectually agree with the logic behind it. Yet, many of us still struggle to take care of ourselves. We are disciplined in many areas in life and business and still struggle with this one.

If you’ve ever paid attention to the pre-flight training from the airlines before take-off, you’ve heard the instructions in case of emergency to put the oxygen mask on yourself first – even before your kids. You can’t take care of anyone if you are passed out!

This same truth holds true for you as a business owner. You are literally the energy and force that fuels your business — no one else is. No one else can power it for you. If you run out of fuel or are full of contaminated fuel your business will suffer. You will work harder than needed. You will struggle to make decisions. You will doubt yourself. The worry or fear you experience will enter your business and permeate its essence. Contaminating decisions, products and interactions with others. And ultimately you are not the only one that suffers. So do all of your clients, vendors, suppliers, creditors, employees and stakeholders.

The clearer your mind and the healthier your spirit, the more able you are to serve the world in the biggest most powerful way possible. For many of us that is through our business.

Think about what that means to you and where in your life you are not taking care of yourself. Where is water leaking into your gas tank? What are one or two small things you can do to change that today?

In my monthly Success in Business Meditation we learn to begin our meditation by focusing on ourselves. I teach you a simple way to do this in just 10 minutes. THEN we are in a clean and focused place to move on to what we are creating with our business. We have the capacity to expand and give in a powerful and compelling way.

Mindfulness and meditation are just one of several ways you can ‘keep your gas tank clean’.

Have you ever gotten the advice to “just be yourself”? It’s probably one of the most common bits of advice given, particularly when speaking with someone who is nervous about doing something new. And while ‘just be yourself’ sounds great, is it really good advice? Do we even know what being our self means in a moment that we’ve not experienced before?

This advice is often given when we are nervous and stepping outside of our comfort zone. The thing is when I am trying something new I don’t know who I am in that situation. I’m cutting Fresh Tracks. I’ve not grown into it yet to know who I am.

My experience is that the process of discovering who I am, particularly when doing something I haven’t done before, takes me jumping in, feeling my way around, and THEN becoming clear and confident about who I am. I don’t know who I am before experiencing this situation because I haven’t experienced it before. What if I am a mess – do I really want to just be myself in this situation?

A better piece of advice is to ‘be my best’. I may be a mess, but in my best moments I can pull myself together to give it my all.

An example I’ll share is when I started producing this newsletter 15 years ago. It was called The Small Business Buzz back then and the first several months it was terrible. It took time for me to discover my voice, narrow down what I had to say and why it was important, and share my message in a confident and powerful way.

I couldn’t be myself because I wasn’t sure who that was. I started writing and producing by taking action and doing the best I could based on what I knew to do. During the stumbling around process I discovered who I am as a writer and a publisher. I didn’t know ahead of time because I had no sense of self about it.

Letting go of who you aren’t to discover who you are

As a Fresh Tracker learning how to be yourself is part of the journey in creating Fresh Tracks. Creating those Fresh Tracks means living and being MORE of who you are right now. For most of us this is a process of uncovering who we aren’t in order to be more of who we are. Stepping into new and unknown territories is part of how we discover who we are in the first place.

Is there a difference between being myself, meaning who I am right now, and being who I choose to be? Perhaps who I choose to be is a stronger, more confidence person? Or I may try different ways of being me and see what is most comfortable and stick with that.

Don’t take the advice “just be yourself”. You can choose who you are in each moment and be authentic at the same time. Instead, I encourage you to “be your best self”.

Expect to Fail on Your Road to SuccessAnd Quit Beating Yourself Up About It!

There’s a saying in skiing that if you don’t fall you’re not pushing yourself, which my dad annoyingly repeated to me over and over again as a kid on the ski slopes of Colorado. And not only did he expect me to fall, he made me get up by myself! He would walk up the mountain on his skis, stand right next to me and tell me what to do; how to untangle my legs, put my ski back on while standing sideways on the mountain, un-fog my wet goggles so I could see. I was miserable.

As a mother myself I can now see how patient he actually was, waiting for my wailing tears to stop and discouraging me from sliding down the mountain on my butt instead of skiing after the crash. He wanted me to be confident in myself so that I knew I was strong enough to get out of any situation.

Failing is a stepping stone to successThrough my tears and grumbling with each fall, my dad taught me an important lesson – falling is OK. It is, in fact, expected if you want to get better. What is also expected is that I pick myself back up, don’t rely on anyone else to bail me out, and get on my way down the mountain and not catch a ride with a snowmobile (which I only did once when I tried snowboarding).

If you’re not falling you’re not pushing yourself is an important lesson for all entrepreneurs and for anyone that is cutting Fresh Tracks. You will fall. You will fail. It is expected and in fact good because if you aren’t falling you aren’t growing. You aren’t pushing yourself and your goals are probably not stretching you enough. The last lesson, it’s up to you to pick yourself back up.

Because no one else gives a shit.

Failure is a part of your growth and is a necessary and unavoidable part of the Fresh Tracks process. As humans it’s natural to want to avoid the pain and fear involved in falling. We hide our failures from others in shame and it’s not usually talked about so we don’t see how others are falling along their way too. We see the success of others, but not the long, painful journey they endured to get there. We try at all costs to master things without experiencing the emotional roller coaster that goes along with true growth.

We can intellectualize failing and get that it’s going to happen, but when it actually happens it’s a lot harder than we can ever expect it to be and many good people end up quitting. When you are skiing and you fall you get wet. Snow gets in your gloves and down your back. It’s gets in your goggles and fogs them up. It takes time, patience, and occasionally a spare pair of gloves to swap out to continue on through the day.

How can you best endure the dips and falls of creating your Fresh Tracks? Start by developing a sense of trust in yourself – you know your next step. When you do this your intuition gets stronger and you are more able to bounce back quickly from the setbacks you are destined to experience. Worrying about failing is only going to make you feels worse, so don’t focus on it.

Trust yourself not that you won’t fail, but that you’ll keep trying. There is an old saying that ‘businesses don’t go under, the owners quit’. I share that saying with you and ask you to apply that to your goals. Trusting yourself that you won’t quit is key factor in success and is what differentiates those that do accomplish what they want in life from those that don’t.